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MAIMONIDES

“One only loves the Holy One blessed be He through the knowledge of Him. This love is commensurate to the knowledge. If the knowledge is little, the love will be little; and if the knowledge is great, the love will be great. Thus, it is imperative for a person to dedicate himself to understand and contemplate the wisdom and knowledge that inform him of his Creator.” (Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Teshuvah 10:6)

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The Knowledge Of G-D – 1:39

On the other hand, the aspect of tikkun (rectification) is when a quality emerges from its essential point, to extend outside of the bounds of the essential desire and intellect. This is to say, that he allows himself to be objective. An example of the quality of kindness as it exists in tikkun, is when a desire and intellectual leaning of kindness is aroused toward his fellow because he did him a favor. Here it is not solely because of the essential goodness and kindness of his soul. On the contrary, when one is acting objectively, according to the way of tikkun, it is possible that though he may be cruel by nature, nonetheless, to someone who was gracious to him and saved him from death or the like, he will desire to be kind. He will always view that person kindly and consider his merits in his mind, etc. This is because he was proven worthy of his kindness, etc.

This is called a “composite” kindness or goodness. It is not at all the simple and essential kindness which results solely from his essential nature. Because it is a composite, complex kindness, it no longer is merely the simple will to act kindly, but comes about according to the situation. He will be kind to some and not to others, all according to rational sense and reason. The same principle applies to the opposite of kindness, which is the composite quality of sternness. He will focus his desire and intellect toward contemplating the guilt of his enemy, who caused him much harm. This will be so even though he may be a very kind and compassionate person by nature, etc.

Based on this, we understand that it is possible for the composition of one’s desires to be engineered in extremely different ways, according to the considerations which form the feelings. Included in this, are composite love and composite hate, because they are dependent on some rational consideration, as mentioned above. It is thus possible to find something that from one angle, one will love. From this angle he will only have good and kind thoughts and desires towards this thing. Simultaneously, from another angle of the very same thing itself, he will judge it sternly and have thoughts and desires to harm and destroy it. Because of this principle of composite qualities it is possible for the matter of compromise to exist, which takes both kindness and sternness into account and comes to a conclusion somewhere between the two opposite poles.

Tikkun (rectification) is also called Partzuf, which means “face” or “personality”. This is because at this point there are recognizable divisions of the sefirot into ten, each of which is divided into subsequent divisions of ten. The concept of a partzuf is the inclusion of all opposites etc., like a human being, who has many facets to his personality, all of which join to make him who and what he is. Besides this, his physical body too is made up of many parts with different and even opposite natures and functions, and yet, not only do they not contradict each other, but they work in conjunction as a unified system. Each organ performs the function it is suited for while allowing the others to perform their function. Furthermore, in order to perform properly, every organ depends on the others for its health and vitality, for example, if a person has nagging foot pains, this will affect his brain and he will have difficulty concentrating on his studies. This mutual coexistence and symbiosis is not possible in Tohu, where the sefiros exist as pure essences and are therefore incompatible with their counterparts.

It is specifically in tikkun that mutual coexistence and symbiosis can exist, since in tikkun each point comes about as an extension outside of its essence. It is specifically then that they can be included one with the other through the many various types of vessels for expression, of which they are composed etc. The vessel integrates something of each sefirah. This being the case, they all find expression in it. This allows all the sefiros to coexist within the desire for the same act. In addition, because it integrates all of them, it is powered by the desire for all of them to find expression. This allows for a complete expression of all the qualities in a settled and fulfilling manner.